© 2014-2021 Copyright by P. K. H. Groth, Denver, Colorado, USA All rights reserved - See contact page for for permission to republish article
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Ancient and Prehistoric Hunters
Using Birds to Scout: This may be an odd introduction, but let us consider the human Yao honey
hunters of Mozambique and Indicator indicator, the bird species known as the honey hunter. The birds
know where the honeycomb is in trees, but they often have difficulty getting it harvested according to
evolutionary ecologist Dr. Claire Spottiswoode of the University of Cambridge. She studied how local
natives symbiotically work with the birds to harvest honey. Gatherers talk to the birds and mimic their
songs using a loud thrill followed by a “brr-hmm” sound. Then the birds lead the honey men to bee’s
nests and wait for a handout as a reward. The birds eat the comb wax left behind, and often the heat-
extracted wax from processing the honey on location. How long has this bird-man tradition lasted?
Explorers reported the partnership in 1599.
Today’s gatherers cut down trees to get at the bees’ nests. However, stone axes one million years old
have been found, suggesting the cooperative tradition has been in long maintenance. Hazda Honey
hunters in Africa also call the birds with whistles, words, and shouts. However, up to 10% of the Hazda
diet comes from honeyguide hunts, so they burn and bury the bee’s wax to keep the birds wax-hungry
and ever willing to hunt. Seventy five percent of the daily honey hunts were productive. So once again,
improve your hunting skills by listening to nature! Science News, August 20, 2016 p 10
Native American Women Were Big Game Hunters:
It is common in ancient burials to include objects the person used during life, so they could continue
using them in their perceived afterlife. Burials of Peruvian women 6,000 to 12,000 years ago contain
hunting artifacts such as spear points, scrapers, and implements used to extract bone marrow. These
would have been used for big game hunting, not for hunting rodents and birds. The small data set
proportions of male and female graves having large animal hunting implements suggest that women
did 30 to 50% of the big game hunting of Andean deer and vicunas (pre-domesticated alpacas). This
discovery contradicts the modern stereotype of ancient tribal life, in which the men do the hunting
and women attend to butchering, cooking, and conversion of animal parts to clothing and utensils.
University of Kentucky (Louisville) Dr. Ashley Smallwood points out that observance of modern
hunter-gatherers cannot be indicative of ancient human division of labors. University of California
(Davis) Randall Haas also thinks he observed female hunting evidence when he excavated a 17-19
year old woman in Peru’s Wilamaya Patjxa area. Her burial tools included spear points and meat
processing stones. Science news 5/12/2020
Wood
spear
before
bows:
Archeologist
have
discovered
eleven
wonderfully
preserved
wooden
spruce
tree
spears
3
in
lake
deposits
near
Hanover,
Germany.
This
is
estimated
to
be
90%
of
all
wooden
artifacts
from
the
period
780,000
to
125,000
years,
the
Middle
Pleistocene.
The
ancient
lake
people
apparently
hunted
horses,
who’s
bones
were
also
found
with
the
sharpened
poles.
The
bones
and
spears
were
deposited
in
a
lake
that
was
under
3
to
6
feet
deep.
Attempts
to
accurately
throw
reproduction
spears
failed,
leading
some
archaeologists
to
conclude
these
early
hominids
used
the
spears
in
close
ambush.
The
poles
were
much
too
long
and
heavy
to
throw
like
spears.
The
theory
was
that
they
drove
horses
into
the
lake
where
they
could
not
outrun
the
pursuers,
and
then
lanced the beasts.]
Science Magazine, Vol 34, June 2014, p1080
.
Universities
are
always
propagating
new
specialties.
One
is
forensic
archeo-osteology.
These
bone
detectives
studied
early
human
bones
contemporary
with
the
horse
massacre
sites.
They
found
that
arm
bones
had
adapted
to
very
strenuous
throwing
activity
by
growing
larger
bone
spurs
for
large
flexure
muscle
attachment.
While
modern
recreationists
could
not
throw
the
clumsy
poles
far
or
with
any
accuracy,
evidently
the
ancients
could.
The
children
must
have
had
toy-heaving
sticks,
which
increased
weight
and
length
as
they
grew.
Eventually,
they
would
be
strong-armed
adults
and
spear
horses like their elders!
An Old Hunter Succumbed to A Storm? The 8,000 year old skeletal remains found in the Flat Tops cave
were of a man 5 feet tall and 40 years old, quite aged for that time. The early visitor crawled in the
cave and died for un known reasons. He was probably an ancestor of the Southern Ute Indians. The
Ute Trail was used seasonally to traverse the Flat Tops. There are some “summer” camps with teepee
rings, so tents were transported to the interior for lengthy stays. Did native inhabit the high altitudes
at other times of the year like spring and fall> Patty Jo Watson, Washington University, St. Louis, expert
cave archeologist summarized that the Flat Tops discovery may further rewrites prehistory. It was
formerly thought that people that long ago only traveled through high altitude territory using pass
trails. Now it appears that people may have mastered living and working at high altitudes. This
required special clothing, survival and hunting skills. High altitude permanent sites have been located
in the Gnnison, CO area. Chicago Tribune website May 5, 2019